Gambia: The Unfair Prosecution of two Women Human Rights Defenders Must Stop

PRESS RELEASE - THE OBSERVATORY

THE GAMBIA: The Unfair Prosecution of two Women Human Rights
Defenders Must Stop

Paris-Geneva, January 9, 2012. The Observatory for the Protection
of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for
Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), denounces
the interminable judicial harassment faced by two women human rights defenders
in The Gambia.

On January 11, 2012, the criminal case “the State versus Dr. Isatou
Touray and Amie Bojang-Sissoho” will resume, marking the 41st hearing
since the opening of the trial in November 2010 before the Banjul Magistrates’ Court. Dr. Isatou
Touray and Ms. Amie Bojang-Sissoho, respectively Executive Director
and Programme Coordinator of The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices
Affecting the Health of Women and Children (GAMCOTRAP), an organisation working
on sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and children, are
prosecuted on charges of “theft” for the alleged embezzlement of 30,000 euros
received in 2009 from “Yolocamba Solidaridad”, a Spanish development NGO. The
judicial harassment has been going on for more than a year and a half, when the
police started interrogations of GAMCOTRAP staff.

On January 31, 2011, Ms. Begoña Ballestros Sanchez, Director of
Yolocamba Solidaridad, denied accusing anyone associated with GAMCOTRAP of theft
and submitting a complaint in relation thereof during a hearing at Banjul
Magistrate’s Court. During interrogation, which took six hearings, Ms. Isatou
Touray had to respond to very precise questions by the Prosecutor covering all
aspects of GAMCOTRAP's activities, staff and resources that are unrelated to the
charges. He also repeatedly made depreciating comments about the work of
GAMCOTRAP's programme to eradicate female genital mutilation.

The Observatory believes that the criminal case against Dr. Isatou
Touray and Amie Bojang-Sissoho merely aims at intimidating them and impeding
GAMCOTRAP from carrying out its activities for the promotion and protection of
human rights. More generally, it also aims at intimidating the Gambian civil
society and, more particularly, those who stand up for human
rights.

The Observatory firmly denounces this continuing judicial harassment
and calls upon the Gambian authorities to guarantee that human rights defenders
can carry out their activities free of any hindrances and stop any kind of
harassment - including at the judicial level - against human rights defenders,
in line with the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the
African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and international human rights instruments ratified by The Gambia.